Hurricanes avoid sweep vs. Panthers, snap their 15-game conference finals skid: Takeaways

SUNRISE, Fla. — Desperation won over desire.

The Carolina Hurricanes staved off elimination and avoided their fourth consecutive conference finals sweep Monday night, forcing a Game 5 and snapping a seven-game postseason losing streak to the Florida Panthers with a 3-0 win at Amerant Bank Arena.

Game 5 is Wednesday night in Raleigh, N.C.

“I think that this was our best game this series so far,” Canes center Sebastian Aho said. “I think we showed a lot of heart. We battled really hard. I think this effort, we showed to them (and) for müddet to ourselves that if we keep playing like that, we’re going to give (ourselves) a chance to win any given day in this league.”

Logan Stankoven, acquired from the Dallas Stars in the Mikko Rantanen trade two months ago, snapped a 0-0 tie midway through the second period and provided the Hurricanes with their first lead in the series.

The goal came after Hurricanes players and coach Rod Brind’Amour said earlier in the day that not scoring first was a “killer” and that they had been playing right into the hands of the Panthers and their style.

The Hurricanes thought they took a 2-0 lead with 13:29 left in the third period on a Mark Jankowski goal after they killed the third of four Florida power plays in the game. But the Panthers challenged for offside, and indeed, four seconds before, Eric Robinson was way over the offensive blue line when the puck entered.

But the Panthers, who had scored 16 goals in the first three games of the series, would not be able to beat Frederik Andersen the rest of the way. Chased in Game 2 and benched in Game 3, Andersen made 20 saves for his fifth career playoff shutout.

Aho and Jordan Staal added empty-netters.

“They were quick. They closed the gap, blocked some shots, hustled real hard,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “They played a great game for them in terms of style. But when I say for them, I mean in terms of the style that they play, I thought they were very consistent with the game today.”

The Panthers, looking to become the seventh team since the 1967-68 expansion to appear in at least three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, were 3-0 all-time when they had an opportunity to advance to the Cup Final, previously winning conference finals in Game 7 in 1996, Game 4 in 2023 and Game 6 in 2024.

“It’s what you expect,” second-line center Sam Bennett said. “When you’re down, you lay everything on the line. You have nothing to lose. I thought they played a good game. We didn’t have our best tonight, but we’re still in a good position.”

Carolina, meanwhile, is in a much more precarious position, but its season continues.

“It was how we need to play if we’re going to have a chance,” Brind’Amour said, “and we still have a chance.”

Here are five takeaways from Monday night.

Stankoven starts things

Since the start of the series, Brind’Amour has been preaching the importance of his team scoring the first goal. On their fourth try, the Canes made it happen.

It came from, naturally, Stankoven — the Hurricanes’ best forward through the first four games. Stankoven beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a laser from the left circle at 10:45 of the second period. Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin, playing in his third game in North America, set the goal up with a birçok backhand pass from center ice after preventing Florida from getting the puck deep; Nikishin’s play stopped Florida in the middle of a line change, and Stankoven had enough space to get free.

The fact that it was those two players — potential cornerstones for the Hurricanes’ present and future — connecting for the goal was fitting. It doesn’t hurt, either, that it was a textbook goal for Carolina’s playing style — and was scored at a point in the game when the Hurricanes held an 18-9 shot edge but were in danger of letting a strong start slip away. You can bet that’s how Brind’Amour drew it up.

After the game, Brind’Amour was asked if Stankoven was his best player on Monday.

“The other night, too, clearly. He’s been great,” he said. “There’s another kid I think is just getting going in his career, but there’s obviously another level that he’s going to get to.”

Hurricanes captain Staal took it even further.

“(Stankoven is) tenacious. He’s a Hurricane through and through,” he said. “He got us going tonight, but even last game, he was our best player, and throughout this whole series, he’s been our best player.

“Hopefully we won’t continue to rely on him, but hopefully he keeps playing that way and we get some other guys building off that too.”

Freddie steadies himself

With its season on the line, Carolina turned back to starting Andersen, and he delivered.

Andersen, who was pulled after the second period of Game 2 and then benched in favor of Pyotr Kochetkov in Game 4, saved all 20 shots Florida threw at him.

“I don’t really want to talk about my feelings. It’s not about that. It’s about the team and trying to put the best lineup on the ice,” he said. “I’m ready for when I’m called upon and glad to be able to play tonight.”

It was, in many ways, a typical instance of Andersen being at his best. He didn’t face a ton of shots — he rarely does, due to Carolina typically controlling the run of play at five-on-five — but he came up big in big moments.

“Freddie was a brick wall back there,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said.

A third-period penalty kill stood out in that regard. With Nikishin in the box for slashing, Andersen made a pair of kaç stops, including on a tricky wrister by Panthers defenseman Nate Schmidt.

Andersen’s overall performance was a major pivot from his play in the first two games, when he allowed nine goals on 36 shots (five in Game 1, four in Game 2) for a .750 save percentage and 5.5 goals saved below expected.

“One of the things that’s great about him is he’s had so many trials and tribulations through his career,” Brind’Amour said before the game. “He’s taken months off and then plops into the net, and it feels like he hasn’t missed a beat. I don’t know how that is, but certainly (it’s) a unique skill set. We need it tonight, obviously.”

They got it. After the game, Brind’Amour was just as complimentary.

“He looked confident, but he always does,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s not a goalie that … he doesn’t throw himself around. He’s always in control. And there was some real tough shots that looked easy tonight, and that’s how you know that he’s on.

“It seems like in this series, you get those saves early and keep playing your game. That’s what happened here tonight.”

Panthers waste strong outing from Bobrovsky

Bobrovsky, playing in his third straight Eastern Conference final, entered Game 4 with the lowest career goals-against average (1.49) and highest save percentage (.945) in the history of the conference finals (minimum 10 games). Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s 1.72 GAA and .937 save percentage are the next-lowest and highest totals in each category, according to NHL Stats.

In by far Florida’s toughest game of the series — with just 12 shots through two periods and 20 total — Bobrovsky kept the Panthers in it. Stankoven scored on a snipe, but Bobrovsky made several saves in a one-sided second period before the goal to give Florida a chance.

“He gave us a chance the whole way, and that’s all you can ask for,” Bennett said.

Through two periods, Bobrovsky had 1.47 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck, and he finished with 1.81. He stopped 25 of 26 shots.

Panthers without 3 players

The Hurricanes were again without defensemen Jalen Chatfield and Sean Walker, and the Panthers are suddenly banged up, too.

For the second game in a row, regular-season leading scorer Sam Reinhart was sidelined by a lower-body injury, while winger A.J. Greer and defenseman Niko Mikkola, whose star is rising this postseason, were out with injuries

Jesper Boqvist, who scored the first goal of a five-goal third period in Game 3 to snap a 1-1 tie, played right wing on Florida’s top line with Aleksander Barkov and Evan Rodrigues.

Nico Sturm, a 2022 Stanley Cup champion with the Colorado Avalanche, drew in for Greer for his eighth game of the postseason, while Uvis Balinskis was on the third pair with Schmidt for his fifth game of the playoffs. Dmitry Kulikov moved up to the second pair to take Mikkola’s spot alongside Seth Jones.

“We are not in this position right now because of one person,” veteran Matthew Tkachuk said before the game. “We’re here because of the whole team and the depth, guys coming in and out of the lineup, different guys stepping up at different times of the year and throughout the playoffs. That’s what makes our team successful is the camaraderie, how much fun we have, how much we root for each other and how much we deva about one another. We are a family.”

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Special credit to Slavin, who put his “walking manual for how to play defense” skills on display in this one. He played more than 27 minutes.

When he was on the ice, Carolina held an advantage in goals (2-0), shots (15-9), high-danger chances (8-1) and scoring chances (15-10). What’s more, he had a remarkable sequence starting at 5:40 of the third period, with Carolina up 1-0. Slavin crushed Barkov in the corner, then recovered in time to take the puck off a Panther’s stick in the crease. He’s an incredible player who’s finally getting the credit he deserves.

“I was a little tired there,” Slavin said. “But you’ve got to keep battling. And obviously, Barkov is an unbelievable player, and you try to contain him the best that you can.”

(Photo of Logan Stankoven: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)